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Ashton Blake
Ashton Blake was one of the main characters and narrators in the World of Many Colors books. Biography Background Ashton was born a Skychaser in the appearance of five-year-old Jem Tynan, genetically-modified and trained for Ember White's Skychaser army. He was born a "mistake" as Ember put it. He was born a day before the other Skychasers, his face was different from the others, and he was the only Skychaser with emotion. He was not allowed any contact with the outside world except on missions. Ashton met Elain Delmon when Ember forced the two to fight in the Water District. He'd thought Elain was just a regular Skychaser like him, until realizing after touching her groin during the fight that Elain was a female Skychaser. Elain broke his arm then. Ember had considered killing Ashton, after he displayed a lot of emotion at having his arm broken, which Skychasers weren't created to do, but was later convinced by Molly Tynane that she could take him to her base at the Air District. Ashton was given his name by Molly, and the two became good friends. Ashton felt immensely betrayed when Molly betrayed the Skychasers eight years after his creation with two of the other leaders and disappeared. It was then that Ember found Ashton and shot him. Ember didn't know that by "killing" Ashton, he was sent to the real world, where he met Rayner Blake during spring break in March, while hiding in the outdoor community basketball locker rooms. All through the next five months, Ashton would steal things from Rayner to survive in this new world, but would later do it to make him mad, as the loneliness was slowly eating away at his sanity, and he enjoyed it when Rayner would try to chase him. Unknowingly, Ashton was slowly befriending Rayner, as the boy realized he was a bored homeless kid, and even went to him for comfort when his mother died of eye cancer, though Ashton didn't reveal himself to him. He always kept his Skychaser mask on, hiding his face from Rayner, until finally one day Rayner caught Ashton and took his mask off. Awed by how Ashton's eyes were gold, he caught Rayner's interest and later Ashton was invited to stay with Rayner and his father, were the three of them bonded incredibly. Despite Rayner's kindness toward him, Ashton still felt an impeccable jealousy at Rayner's perfect life, and made it his new mission to crush him down and make Rayner as miserable as he was. Ashton spent a full year and a half of staying with the Blakes until Emberlee found him and forced him to return. Ashton begrudgingly left without saying goodbye, believing that his mission to make Rayner miserable had failed. Two years later Ashton returned to the real world on a mission Ember gave him to erase his friend's memories of him, but was surprised that his mission had worked all on its own. It appeared that Ashton had left Rayner with more questions than answers about his real life, making him obsessed enough to quit his goal of getting a scholarship through basketball. It turned out that Rayner's life had changed while Ashton had stayed with him. Ashton was very hesitant to make friendly with Rayner again, afraid of what Ember would do to him, but was convinced to stay and even be adopted by the Blake's when Rayner found the place he was staying at in the real world and told him that “I don’t care if you’re crazy. It seems so pointless, everything just seems pointless. But when I’m with you, it doesn't matter. I don’t know why. All I know is that I want you to stay here with me.” Ashton stayed with the Blake's up until the start of Summer Vacation when Emberlee broke into their house one evening and told Ashton's new family the truth on everything about him. She killed his adoptive family and sent Ashton back to where he came from, but in Rayner's fleeting moments of life, he managed to tag along and merge with his Other self in the Otherworld. Rayner, now Ragnar, which was his Other self's name, insisted that Ember let him join the Skychasers so he could stay with Ashton. A trial followed quickly, in which Ember tortured and questioned Ragnar on everything he'd known about Ashton beforehand. She made him a skychaser in the end, but gouged Ashton's right eye out as punishment for disobeying her. Then she erased his memories herself about the real world and everything he'd experienced there, and transfered Rayner away from Ashton. A week later, Emberlee returned to the place Ashton and Rayner had previously been residing, and erased the town's memories of Ashton entirely, and altering everyone's memories on the Blake's that the father and son died together when their house went on fire. Five years later, Elain helped set up a meeting between Ragnar and Ashton, in hopes of helping Ashton get his memory back. Ragnar lied to Ashton on most things, like him losing his eye was to cancer, but was truthful in helping him remember that he was adopted by his family when he was twelve, until Ember recruited them for the Skychasers. Ragnar behaved cruelly to him after that to make him believe they were enemies in order to protect him from Ember. Ashton left the Skychasers after that, only to be accidentally found by Molly. Molly was shocked he didn't remember her, but in order to help him, she created a fake life for him, letting him believe he could be normal. History A few months later, Ashton was taken against his will by the Skyrunner Research foundation, where they tested their new cure on him, which they believed would keep Others from spawning skyrunners when they feel negative emotions, only to be shocked to find that Ashton didn't spawn skyrunners. Chris Ivan, head doctor of the organization, made Ashton an offer that if they could extract his brain and study it, they could use him to create a cure that would work, but at the cost of Ashton's life. After some contemplation, Ashton agreed. When Ember found out about this, she banished Ashton to the Real world to keep him from creating the cure, but secretly sent a pack of skyrunners with him to secretly watch him and kill him if he did something out of context. Ashton knew the easiest way for someone like him to get back to the Otherworld was to find someone who's Other was strong enough to take him, which lead him to New Jersey, where he found Jesse Tynan at a Friday night party... Characteristics Features Ashton has a young and somewhat effeminate appearance. He has slightly longish mahogany hair that he likes to keep untamed. He also has large bucked teeth, which are perfectly taken care of, as they are pure white and straight. He has eyes that are larger-than-natural, with irises the color of polished gold, but since losing his right eye, Ashton has worn a glass one in its place with white a iris, saying that he doesn't want to be fake, and that it's not a real eye. His nose is said to be small and perfectly sloped, and he had pale white skin with no flaws. He's also the tallest character in the series, at 6'1''. ''He is frequently seen grinning and teasing others. When he was in his preteens, Elain made a bet with him, saying that the loser has to get a piercing. Ashton evidently lost, as he has a piercing that he accessorized with a flat black bead on his right ear lobe, whereas Elain doesn't have any piercings. Personality On the outside, he is a typical jokester; humorous and energetic, very witty and knowing exactly what to say but not always when to say it, enjoying messing around with other people's business. However, he is able and willing to adopt ruthless and violent methods if the situation calls for it, and it is safe to assume that he has taken significant psychological damage from his time with the Skychasers. Nonetheless, he is loyal and dependable, has a keen sense of social intuition, is on brother-like terms with Jesse, Elain, and Ragnar, and has performed numerous empathetic acts towards Abby Fillips. He is an excellent liar, as well as intelligent, quick, flexible, and light on his feet, and very talented with the powers that Ember granted him and the Skychasers, despite refusing to use them whenever possible. He was genetically enhanced with the rest of the Skychasers, giving him enhanced hearing, sight, adaption to his surroundings, among others. He also has an exceptional memory, as he was able to memorize where each security camera was located in the Shadow District base. This ability was also portrayed in Ashes when Ashton memorizes many of the names and codes of the other skychasers. His memorization skills are also implied in Torment when Jesse asks Ashton whether he had remembered their plan and Ashton questions the necessity of the confirmation. Trivia *The name "Ashton" means "Ash Tree." Ash trees symbolize sensitivity, higher awareness, and sacrifice. "Ash" is also a popular symbol for many things in the series. *Ashton is left-handed. *His sexual orientation as been confirmed by Stacey T. Hunt to be straight. On a side note, Ashton is often simply acting to rile up his friends. * When in Skychaser uniform, he wears a plain white mask with eye-holes and vertical cuts along the area where the mouth should be. **His mask is the simplest of all the Skychasers. *The majority of Ashton's outfits are red. * Ashton tells Jesse about a dream he had the other night. He says he found himself inside of a crashing plane full of distressed people. Bewildered, he investigated the cockpit, only to find a missing pilot. In a panic, he tried to assist the situation by attempting to fly the plane, but it had rendered useless. And before the plane crashed, he woke up. There are many discussions on the interpretation of Ashton's dream. One being that the inability to control the plane could signify Ashton's uncertainty of making it in the end. Another interpretation implied that the people in the plane signified the human race, the plane crashing symbolized humanity's downfall, and his attempt at flying it was him as humanity's saving grace, the vaccine. Jesse is said to have 'woken him up' from the dream, stopping him from killing himself to save the plane full of people. These community interpretations not only deepen the reader's knowledge of Ashton, but it ripples and emphasizes Jesse's decisions towards the end of the story. * He completed his goal of sacrificing himself for the good of the ones he cared about when he died after spawning an extremely powerful skyrunner, which was used to fight off the remainder of his opponents. This is symbolic, as only real people spawn skyrunners, hence giving Ashton completion as a real human. *Jesse is the only known living person who remembers Ashton's existence. Category:A to Z Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Skychasers Category:Others Category:Deceased Category:Main characters Category:Viewpoint characters Category:Characters in Respite Category:Characters in Trick Category:Characters in Twister Category:Characters in Torment